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Lawsuit: Jackson runs what amounts to debtors' prison

Parking enforcement officer Ralf Windham tickets a vehicle parked at an expired meter near Smith Park in downtown Jackson. A lawsuit filed against the city claims it is running what amounts to a debtors' prison for people who cannot pay fines levied against them.(Photo: File photo by Joe Ellis/the Clarion-Ledger)Buy Photo

A complaint filed in federal court accuses the city of Jackson of unconstitutionally jailing the poor for not paying fines owed for traffic violations and other misdemeanors — sometimes for months at a time.​

On Friday, Equal Justice Under Law, a public interest law firm in Washington, D.C., and the MacArthur Justice Center at the University of Mississippi School of Law filed the lawsuit, which alleges the city operates an “illegal debt collection scheme” in violation of the 13th amendment.

“These practices – and the modern day debtors’ prison they have created – have no place in our society,” the complaint said.

In a system city prosecutors call “pay or stay,” those who are jailed either “sit out” their debts in Hinds County jail at $25 per day or “work off” their debts at $58 a day at the Hinds County Penal Farm, court records show. One plaintiff in the case spent more than six months working in the penal farm before he was released and placed on a payment plan.

Alec Karakatsanis, co-founder of Equal Justice Under Law, said his organization has filed similar lawsuits against other cities, including Montgomery and New Orleans.

“Under basic legal rules, no human being can be put in a cage because they can’t make a monetary payment,” he said. “What Jackson is doing is violating that by policy and practice.”

Jackson’s city attorney, the city prosecutor nor spokeswoman Shelia Byrd returned calls for comment, but Byrd released a written statement denying the allegations, adding that the city has not yet been served.

“The City of Jackson does not operate a ‘debtors’ prison,’ and aims to treat all of its citizens fairly under the law,” the statement said. “The City of Jackson does not imprison any citizen without statutory authority and the weighing of all factors, unlike surrounding municipalities who make it a practice to imprison individuals who cannot pay immediately.”

The complaint outlines the experiences of seven men who were jailed after being brought to municipal court with debts ranging from $1,200 to $19,403. The men were ordered to pay the fines or earn credit toward the debt by serving time in jail.

In each case, the assigned public defender didn’t meet with the defendant before or during the hearing to discuss the charges or the man’s ability to pay the fines. The public defender also didn’t review the case or relevant records to check for accuracy, didn’t encourage the court to consider the client’s ability to pay, and didn’t object to the incarceration, court records show.

“While we understand the difficulties faced by public defenders in handling a large municipal court docket, it is imperative that public defenders zealously protect their clients’ liberties particularly in the face of incarceration based on the economic position of the client,” said Cliff Johnson, director of the MacArthur Justice Center. “In these cases, we contend that the public defenders should have insisted that the court conduct a meaningful inquiry into the defendants’ ability to pay.”

Two of the men named in the lawsuit are disabled and were unable to "work off" their debt in the penal farm, so they couldn’t earn the higher daily credit to their debt. Both men also spent more than 20 days sleeping on the floor of a Hinds County holding cell without a mattress, court records show.

“We have grave concerns about the lack of accommodations available for disabled citizens who appear before the court,” Johnson said. “Obviously it’s difficult for disabled people to participate in a work program, and also we don’t think the jail is equipped to accommodate those individuals who have physical disabilities, so it’s yet another issue.”

In the seven cases described in the complaint, the city prosecutor and municipal judge didn’t ask about the defendant’s ability to pay the fines, which the suit alleges violates the Constitution.

“A judge in a courtroom has the responsibility to ensure a courtroom is a place where rights are upheld – not a place where revenue is generated,” Karakatsanis said.

After one man named in the complaint spent about a month working at the penal farm, an attorney requested a municipal judge release him, arguing that his client was too poor to pay the debt. The city prosecutor argued he should stay in jail, and the judge declined his release, the complaint said.

A few days later, the attorney made the same argument with another judge, who released his client and ordered the man to pay off the fines through a public service work program, court records show.

Although the attorney calculated that his client should owe $3,850 based on his time served at the penal farm, the public service work agreement claimed he owed $5,138. A clerk told the judge she “had found some more fines,” and the judge refused to reconsider the amount because the case had already taken “too much of his time,” the complaint said.

Johnson said a new software program in municipal court has presented issues when it comes to tracking fines.

“The implementation of that new system has revealed significant problems with the city’s record-keeping, and under the current system, it is necessary to check both the computer-generated information and paper files,” he said. “Those two sources of information, as we understand it, often conflict, so it can be very difficult for a defendant to be able to know exactly what they owe and to confirm what the city says they owe is in fact correct.”

In the end, the actual cost of incarceration is borne by Hinds County, he said.

“So, my argument is it’s a net loss as far as the economic reality,” Johnson said. “No money is collected from individuals, and Hinds County has to pay to get them detained.”

The city’s statement said that the municipal court and city attorney have had direct contact with attorneys from the MacArthur Justice Center and referred to negotiations with the organization.

“The City of Jackson has acted in good faith to try and work with this entity to resolve any concerns that any citizen would have,” the statement said. “Nevertheless, the MacArthur Justice Center filed suit amidst the ongoing negotiations. The City of Jackson will vigorously defend against these unfounded claims.”

The complaint requests that a judge declare the case a class-action suit.